by Mary Phillips, HIV/AIDS Activist, Pres. JMH CAB
Stigma
I want to direct your attention to the topic of Stigma. You know, when this epidemic got started, there were four groups of people that were labeled into high risk groups, and anyone who was part of these four groups was immediately and forever associated with the phrase, “they have HIV/AIDS”!
Those groups were the Homosexuals, the Hemophiliacs, the Haitians, and the Heroin Users. People used to call these groups, the four H club…..how IRONIC! Ever since these groups were pointed out by the government, people belonging to these groups, faced having to deal with many of society’s culturally embedded bad feelings towards them and evil stereotypes. Never you mind that, they had to deal with the fear of death from AIDS, and everything that this process entailed.
Some people dealt with AIDS issues from a point of view of compassion for the sick and this was the real deep source of their feelings. Others viewed the epidemic from the point of view of Christian works of Mercy…feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the prisoner, bury the dead, help those in need, visit the sick, give drink to the thirsty, and welcome the stranger.
Yet some other intolerant people were conflicted, and felt both the love and the hate. Those people looked at the high risk groups, and they broke them up into love and hate groups and thus the HIV STIGMA was birthed. It is easy to hate homosexuals and heroin users, especially if you come from a culture that supports hate towards gays and drug users because they are undesirables. Even the Haitians were caught up in the hate side, some bigoted people would say, “Let them die, they’re only black Haitians, promiscuous Gays and criminal Drug users, they deserve what they’ve got.
These backward thinking, discriminatory and bigoted thoughts still prevail. In some minds, the story becomes, “oh they deserve what they have because they are being punished by God”. These ideas go so far, that individuals started to sort out people with AIDS into the ones that deserve it and the innocent victims.
Yeah this started happening when society did not know how to handle the babies with HIV, born of infected mothers that got their infection through sex or needles. The babies could not be shunned and/or ostracized, they became no-fault victims, and all others were sinners. The hemophiliacs also fell into this innocent victim category since they got their infection from contaminated blood products; many thought it was no fault of theirs.
Well as long as people hate Blacks, Homosexuals and Drug users the HIV/AIDS stigma will be alive and well. People with AIDS will still be afraid of what people may really be thinking and feeling towards them and fear will prevail.
Please, the only way we will be able to overcome this is by talking about it, then people don’t understand why the confidentiality laws are so important to people with AIDS. I don’t want to be hated or discriminated because I got HIV and have AIDS.
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